SOVIET UNION: Ruthless Campaign

"If I am declared killed or suddenly
mysteriously dead, you can infallibly conclude, with 100% certainty,
that I have been killed with the approval of the KGB or by it."

With those dramatic words, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia's greatest
living writer, summarized last week the stark fear that follows Soviet
intellectuals today. Even as it improves relations with the West, the
Soviet Union has embarked on the most ruthless campaign in decades to
stifle ideological dissent within its own borders.

"Car Accident." Solzhenitsyn's fear, he made plain in an interview with
the Associated Press and Le Monde, is neither metaphorical nor
paranoid....